


Premium Firewhisky

by iluvzuzu



Series: Second by Second [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Christmas, F/F, F/M, Gen, Marauders' Era, Multi, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-01
Updated: 2017-12-01
Packaged: 2019-02-09 01:13:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 809
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12877023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iluvzuzu/pseuds/iluvzuzu
Summary: James attempts to classify the changes he's noticed in Remus and Sirius since an unfortunate incident the year before.





	Premium Firewhisky

Sometime in the middle of fifth year, Remus, James, and Sirius were decidedly not speaking with one another. Peter was rather torn, and they all knew that he was running back and forth between his friends, telling each of them what the others had said about them behind their backs, but they were all satisfied that if they couldn’t have him on their side, at least he wasn’t on anyone else’s. It had to do with a very sordid event, something Sirius thought was a joke, and something which James considered to be high treason. Remus took it all rather blithely, from James’s perspective. He wasn’t pleased about the situation, but that was all. Displeasure. James, on the other hand, was furious. And Sirius… Sirius was cruel and sour about his joke having been ruined. At one point, Professor McGonagall had even taken James aside to question him about Sirius’s merciless mocking of him during class. James, however, also had a cruel and sour side, and he chose to disclose some very personal details about Sirius’s family situation to explain away his behavior. McGonagall, to her credit, kept up her brisk disapproval of Sirius during class but took him aside for what Peter, ever the eavesdropper, had described to James as relatively emotional conversations about Sirius’s home life. 

It only took until just after Remus’s next full moon to come to James, exhausted, and demand that he and Sirius make up. “I’ve forgiven him,” he said wearily. “You ought to, too.”

James had tightened his lips. “Does he know what he did was wrong yet?”

Remus sighed and rubbed his forehead. “Do you need him to admit it?”

“They could have expelled you,” James said cuttingly. “Imprisoned you. Outed you.”

“But they didn’t,” Remus said firmly. “Thanks to you.” He reached out his hand and, after a moment’s hesitation, James grasped his forearm and Remus grasped James’s back. “Padfoot knows that,” he said softly. “He knows you saved all our lives.”

“Fine,” James grumbled, because really, what fifteen-years-old wouldn’t cave to the idea of his friends thinking him a hero?

So that night at dinner, James, Remus, and Peter all sat beside Sirius and acted as though nothing had changed. It was casting episkey on a severed head, but maybe, for now, it would do. Sirius accepted the return to norm gracefully, and was extra generous, James noted, with offering up dishes and passing the salt and juice. 

Anyway, since that month of turbulence, James had noticed a change in Remus. Or maybe it was a change in Sirius. Perhaps the both of them? Or how each of them treated the other? What it was, he reasoned, was that Sirius’s stunt had finally put him and Remus on equal footing. Before then—and James did feel guilty admitting this, even to himself—Sirius and James were the clear ringleaders, and Remus and Peter the followers. Now… Remus wasn’t afraid of Sirius anymore. That was what it was. James enjoyed having someone else around to help take the piss out of Sirius, something Peter was still a little too meek to do himself; he enjoyed having someone else shoot down Sirius’s more insane antics, rather than always having to be the wet blanket himself. Sirius required more attention from Remus, too, wasn’t always buzzing around James like he’d used to. He listened to Remus now. 

It wasn’t until Christmas Eve of their sixth year, the week after they’d conveniently come upon Lily Evans being attacked by Pure Scum (convenient in the sense that James had been watching her footprints on the Map since dinner that night,) that a different word to describe Remus and Sirius’s behavior towards each other struck James. 

Flirting.

He’d been trying to put his finger on what they were doing, playing chess by the fire and kicking each other’s shins under the table, laughing and cheating horribly. He was watching them closely, trying to identify what it was. Remus looked healthier than ever, cheeks rosy and eyes full of light; Sirius, too, was lighter than he’d been since James’s mother’s passing. James wanted so badly to just chalk it up to the Christmas spirit, or perhaps the literal spirits than Sirius and Remus had been passing between them (PREMIUM firewhisky stolen from Sirius’s dad,) but he knew better. 

They were flirting. 

Well. James had no idea what to do with this information, so he chose to forget about it, right then and there. For the first time in his life, he considered that maybe this was something that wasn’t his business. He just found himself smiling as he leaned back in his armchair and closed his eyes, thinking, why not? A little more love in the world never hurt anyone, and Sirius and Remus were people who could definitely use a little more love. Why not?

**Author's Note:**

> It's. All. Happening.  
> Idk why I've been so inspired recently; maybe the SSRIs are doing their fucking job for once. The reason I made this a series instead of a chaptered story is so that I could go months or years without posting and be fine, but here I am posting twice in a week? Whatever!!! This way we all win!!!  
> Thanks for reading love u~~~


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